slackpkg

Slackpkg is an automated tool to manage local packages and to install new package over a network. Nowadays slackpkg comes as part of Slackware, but if you do not have it installed, the latest version can be downloaded from slackpkg.org and installed with installpkg.

Configuring

Before slackpkg can be used it needs to have a current list of packages and their versions and that can be downloaded automatically by the tool itself once a mirror site is selected. To select a mirror, just uncomment a single URL in the file /etc/slackpkg/mirrors. Note that the links are sorted by Slackware release versions so make sure that the selected link is in the same release that you are interested in. It is recommended, though not required, that you use the mirrors.slackware.com mirror, as that one will automatically redirect you to your geographically closest mirror.

Then run:

darkstar~# slackpkg update gpg

The next step would be to update the package list with:

darkstar~# slackpkg update

If there hasn't been a change to the list, you will be prompted with:

No changes in ChangeLog.txt between your last update and now.
Do you really want to download all other files (y/N)?

Otherwise slackpkg will download and install the current package information and will use that list.

Blacklisting

slackpage will take into consideration any pattern from /etc/slackpkg/blacklist. For example the following patterns will make slackpkg disregard any package that was installed from SBo and from alienBob's repository:

[0-9]+_SBo
[0-9]+alien

Usage

Slackpkg uses patterns to search install and remove packages. The pattern will be searched on the list of packages and any package that matches the pattern is shown.

Search

Searching a package will show you information about the package full name, version and installed status.

info

To get information about a package slackpkg Info packagename will print the package's information to the screen.

install

To install a package use slackpkg install pattern. If a package was found a dialog window will present any packages that matches to the pattern and the user can un/check which packages to install.
To install everything in a branch you can type: slackpkg install branch for example slackpkg install kde will install everything under kde (but nothing from kdei).

remove

To remove a package use slackpkg remove pattern. If a package was found a dialog window will present any packages that matches to the pattern and the user can un/check which packages to remove.

upgrade

If an update is available for a certain package, it can be updated with slackpkg upgrade packagename.

reinstall

This command can be used if a package became broken and needs to be re-installed.

blacklist

This can be used to add a certain package to the blacklist. Blacklisted packages are being disregarded by slackpkg.

generate-template

If you need to re-install the entire system or install a new PC that will have similar installed packages, a user can generate a template to be installed later.

install-template

This command is used to have all the packages in a template be installed on this PC.

install-new

Running slackpkg with this argument generates a list of packages that were introduces to the Slackware recently, for example new dependencies to a package. It is advisable to run this command before updating the system if you synchronize to slackware-current.

upgrade-all

Running slackpkg with this argument will generate a list of all packages that can be upgraded with a new version. The user can un/check which packages to upgrade from a dialog list.

clean-system

Running slackpkg with this argument will generate a list of all packages that are obsolete and can be safely removed from the system. Note that non-official packages will be listed here unless blacklisted.

new-config

During installation a new configuration file might be installed and overwrite your configurations. To prevent that the file will receive a “.new” prefix and after installation slackpkg will inform the user about the existence of these files. Running slackpkg with this argument will search for the existence of these files and will ask the user for instructions.

check-updates

Running slackpkg with this argument will produce a clean printout if there are any available updates.

Full system upgrade

To perform a full system upgrade, please follow these steps (as root user):

It is always recommended to read the latest ChangeLogs and UPGRADING.TXT (found on the HTTP/FTP mirrors for each version) before doing any major system upgrades.

Pay attention to changed configuration files. Update them either by merging your customizations from the older configuration files (Slackpkg can optionally step through every changed configuration file and allow you to resolve the changes) or manually editing the new files after allowing Slackpkg to overwrite the old configuration files. You decide which way works best for you.